Self-propelled wheel chair



June 30, 1953 H. A. EVEREST ETAL SELF-PROPELLED WHEEL CHAIR 3Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 25, 1948 Hzzazer-A 51 5255); M409 6z/2'/vA///v@$ INVENTORS.

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Filed June 25, 1948 June 30, 1953 H. A. EVEREST ETAL 3, 8

SELF-PROPELLED WHEEL CHAIR bzeszerfl A i 59557,

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June 30, 1953 H. A. EVEREST ETAL SELF-PROPELLED WHEEL CHAIR 3Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 25, 1948 14-255 7 #422 C. ZZ'NAl/A/G-iuvmvrozes.

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Patented June 30, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

2,643,898 SELF-PROPELLED CHAIR Herbert A. Everest and Harry G. Jenning's,

Los Angeles, Calif. Application June 25, 1948, 'Serial No. 35,198

Claims. (Cl. 280 240) This invention relates to wheel chairs and inparticular to self-propelled wheel chairs. 4

An object of this invention is to provide a wheel chair having means soconstructed and arranged on the wheel chair as to enable the occupant topropel the wheel chair by manipulation of the means. v 7

Another object of this invention is to provide a when chair soconstructed and designed that the occupant thereof can steer thewheelchair.

Another object of this invention is to provide a collapsible wheel chairwhich can be self-propelled and steered bythe occupant thereof.

Another object of this invention is to provide a whee1 chair having apair of oscillatively mounted armshaving the upper portions of the armsremovable so that when is desired to have someone push the wheel chairthat only the lower portions of the arms are oscillated back and forthand therefore the u per portions since they are removed will notinterfere with the freedom of action of the occupant.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wheel chair having ahollow arm mounted thereon with a removable telescopic extension on theupper portion thereof and means withinthe hollow arm fitting within theextension, the means being connectible to a swingably mounted frontwheel so that by manipulation of the extension the front wheel isswungto steer the wheel chair and the means within the hollow arm are soconstructed that the extension is freely removable and when replacedwill be easily guided back into keying relationship with the means.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wheel chair withoscillatively mounted arms so connected to the rear wheels and, at leastone front wheel of the wheel chair, so as to .permit the operator topropel himself and to steer the vehicle and to provide extensions on thearms to allow the arms to be adjusted to a height suitable to theoccupant.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, which will be mademanifest in the following detailed description and specifically pointedout in the appended claims, reference is had to the accompanyingdrawings for an illustrative embodiment of the invention, wherein:

Figure 1 discloses a side elevation View of a wheel chair embodying thepresent invention; 7

Fig. 2 discloses a front elevation view of a wheel chair disclosed inFig. 1; V

Fig. 3 discloses a front elevation view of the wheel chair embodying thepresent invention in its collapsed condition; 1

Fig. 4 discloses a partial side elevation View of the front of the wheelchair disclosed in Fig. 1 looking in a direction opposite from the View'dis closed in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view along lines 55 of Fig. 1 showing theconstruction of the front wheel linkage system;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view along lines 6-6 of Fig. 5 with parts thereofbroken away to better show the insides of the hollow arm and extension;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view along lines of Fi 6;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to the view shown in'Fig. 5 with the frontwheel shown in full lines in one extreme position and in dot-dash linesin another extreme position;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged sectional view along lines 9-9 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 10 is a sectional view along lines Ill-Ill of Fig. 4.

Fig. 11 is an enlarged sectional view of certain details of thestructure shown in Fig. 6.

Referring to the accompanying drawings wherein similar referencecharacters designate similar parts throughout, the wheel chair comprisestwo side frames generally indicated at l5 and I6 in Fig. '2, said sideframes being collapsibly connected together by an X brace generallyentitled ll which is pivoted at [8 and connected to the lower portionsof the side frames by knuckles 19, see Fig. 1, and slidably engages theupper portions of the side frames by means of slide tips 20 which aresupported by pivot tubes 2|. Pivot tubes 2! are telescoped and fastenedwithin knuckles 22 which form the upper ends of the X brace I 1.Knuckles l9 pivot on pivot tubes 23, see Fig. 5, which tubes areprovided in side frames [5 and i6 and fastened to the side frames asshown in Fig. 5.

A flexible back 25, flexible sides 26 and a flexible seat 21 areprovided for the wheel chair, the seat being fastened to knuckles 22 byscrews 28 or like means and sides 26 are fastened to the verticalportions of side frames l5 and i6 by screws 30 or like means, see Fig;9.

Each of the side frames I5 and [6 has a traction wheel 33 rotatablymounted thereon, and each of said traction wheels being provided with acrank disk 35, see Fig. 1, for purposes to be described. Each of theside frames i5 and I6 also is provided with a swingably mounted frontwheel, front wheel 36 being provided on side frame I5 and front wheel 31provided on side frame I6.

Foldable foot rests 40 are provided on the front of the wheel chair andare foldable upwardly into the position shown in Fig. 3, the construc:tion of these foldable foot rests being set out more specifically in ourapplication filed March 1, 1948, Serial No. 12,316, and since issued asPatent Number 2,591,246.

Side frames l6 and I have hollow arms 4| and 42 pivoted thereto by meansof trunnions 43, see Figs. 6 and 10. Each of the hollow arms 4| and 42has a connecting rod 45 pivoted thereto above the trunnions 43, as shownin Fig. 1, and the connecting rods are pivoted to the crank discs 35, asshown in Fig. 1. Therefore, when the arms 4| and 42 are oscillated backand forth there will be a driving connection to the rear wheels throughthe connecting rods 45. Since. the wheels are independent with respectto one another the hollow arms 4| and 42 will be out of phase in everyposition except one so that normally there will be no dead center atwhich the wheel chair will be stuck so that the occupant will be able topropel the vehicle with a minimum amount of effort.

Each of the hollow arms 4| and 42 has a guide 48, see Figs. 1 and 9,which guides are fixedly attached to side frames |5 and I6 and arepreferably provided with wooden inserts 49 between which the hollow armsare sandwiched and slide back and forth.

Hollow arms 4| and 42 have extensions 52 and 50 respectively telescopeddown therein. Extension 50 is provided with a handle 5!, and extension52 is preferably straight and is provided with a grip. These hollowextensions 52 and 59 frictionally slide into hollow arms 4| and 42,friction being provided by resilient leaf springs 55, see Fig. '7, whichare positioned within adapters 56. The lower portion 58 of extension 50is formed or provided to receive a non-circular spline 59, the end ofthe spline 59 being reduced as shown in Fig. 11 so that whenever thetelescopic extension 50 is withdrawn and is to be replaced, that thereduced end will easily enter the lower portion 58 of the telescopicextension,

as shown in Fig. 11, and guide the remaining portions of spline 59 intothe extension 59. The lower portion 58 of the extension 58 and thespline 59 form a sliding keyway fit so that whenever the extension 50 isrotated the spline 59 will be rotated.

Spline 59 is rotatably mounted in hollow arm 42 by any suitable meanswhich may take the form of a collar 69 which is fixedly fastened tospline 59 and which rests on an insert 6| which is fixedly fastened tohollow arm 42, see Fig. 6.

A linkage system is provided for carrying motion from spline 59 to thefront wheel 36 for purposes of swingin the front wheel in order to steerthe wheel chair and this linkage system comprises a crank 63 fixed tospline 59, said crank being pivoted to a connecting rod 64, compareFigs. 5 and 6, said connecting rod being pivoted to a forked member 55which in turn is pivoted to frame l5, frame |5 being formed with a lug6'! on which forked member 65 is pivoted at 68, see Fig. 5.

The forked member 55 has two downwardly, backwardly sweeping arms, ascan be seen by comparing Figs. 1 and 5, and front wheel 36 is pivotedbetween two arms of forked member 65.

Front wheel 31 is pivoted by a forked member 12, see Fig. 4, from frameHi.

The various movements of the front wheel 36 upon rotation of extension50 can be seen in Fig. 8 in which the full line position depicts thefront wheel being swung to one extreme position in which position thecrank. .63 is moved back adjacent to frame i5 and in the dot-dashposition, the front wheel is in the other extreme position in whichcrank 63 is forward of the hollow arm 42, as can be seen in Fig. 8.

The operation of the device is as follows. In Fig. 1, the extensions 50and 52 are shown in their forwardmost position and as Fig. l is depictedthis is the only position of the traction wheels 33 in which both of theextensions will be in the same position, a movement of the tractionwheel 33 by lifting the wheel chair will move the hollow arm 42 with itsextension 50 and leave hollow arm 4| with its extension 52 in position.Upon oscillation of arms 4| and 42 the connecting rods 45 will causecrank wheels 35 to rotate thereby rotating traction wheels 33 andpropellin the wheel chair. The hollow arm 42 is oscillated throughhandle 5| which handle is so shaped as to permit easy oscillation of arm42 while at the same time permitting easy rotation of extension 50. Uponrotation of extension 50 the spline 59 is rotated and the linkage systemcauses the front wheel to be swung so that the vehicle maybe easilysteered.

Since each mechanism for propelling the traction wheels 33 and themechanism for steering the front wheel 36 are mounted on side frames 15or l6 there is no difliculty in collapsing the wheel chair so thatawheel chair is provided which is self-propelled and steerable and whichmay be readily collapsed.

Since the extensions 59 and 52 are adjustable within hollow arms 42 and4|, an occupant of the wheel chair may readily adjust them to the heightwhich he finds most convenient for his use and since the extensions arefrictionally telescoped within hollow arms 4| and 42 once they areadjusted they will maintain their position until readjusted.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction withoutdeparting from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by theappended claims.

We claim:

1. A device of the class described having rear wheels "and swingablymounted front wheels, means including an oscillatably mounted hollow armfor driving at least one of the rear wheels, a hollow extension for thehollow arm telescoping into the top portion of the hollow arm andequipped with a handle, a keying member rotatably mounted in the lowerportion of the hollow arm and extending upwardly into the hollowextension, said hollow extension being formed-to receive the keyingmember so as to be keyed thereto in a manner such as to permit theextension to be freely withdrawn from the hollow arm, a linkage systemconnecting the keying member to at least one of the front wheelswhereby'the device may be steered by rotating the extension and theextension can be freely removed when desired.

2. A wheel chair having rear wheels and at least one swingablymountedfront wheel, a hollow arm mounted on the wheel chair, a removable hollowextension for the hollow arm partially telescoped therewithin, anoncircular member extending upwardly into the hollow arm and into theextension when the extension is telescoped within the hollow arm, saidhollow extension having a part of the inner portion thereof formed in anoncircular manner to correspond to the irregularities of the upwardlycircular member will be guided by the reduced end of the noncircularmember into the extension.

3. In a wheel chair, a traction wheel rotatably mounted upon a sideframe of the chair, a caster wheel mounted upon said side frame, apropelling arm mounted for oscillation upon the side frame, meansproviding a driving connection between the propelling arm and thetraction wheel whereby the traction wheel may be rotated by oscillatingthe propelling arm, a spline mounted for rotation within the propellingarm and oscillatable therewith, means connecting the spline to thecaster wheel whereby upon rotation of the spline the caster wheel may berotated to steer the wheel chair, and an extension telescopicallyconnected to the propelling arm having a sliding but non-rotatable fitwith the spline.

4. In a wheel chair, a traction Wheel rotatably mounted upon a sideframe of the chair, a caster wheel mounted upon said side frame,

a propelling arm mounted for oscillation upon the side frame, meansproviding a driving connection between the propelling arm and thetraction wheel whereby the traction wheel may be rotated by oscillatingthe propelling arm, a

spline mounted for rotation within the propelling arm and oscillatabletherewith, means connecting the spline to the caster wheel whereby uponrotation of the spline the caster wheel may be rotated to steer thewheel chair, an extension telescopically connected to the propelling armhaving a sliding but nonrotatable fit with the spline, and frictionmeans for holding the extension in adjusted position on the propellingarm.

5. In a wheel chair, a traction wheel rotatably mounted upon a sideframe of the chair, a caster wheel mounted upon said side frame, apropelling arm mounted for oscillation upon the side frame, meansproviding a driving connection between the propelling arm and thetraction wheel whereby the traction wheel may be rotated by oscillatingthe propelling arm, a spline mounted for rotation within the propellingarm and oscillatable therewith, means connecting the spline to thecaster wheel whereby upon rotation of the spline the caster wheel may berotated to steer the wheel chair, and an extension telescopicallyconnected to the propelling arm having a sliding but non-rotatable fitwith the spline, friction means for holding the extension in adjustedposition on the propelling means, said friction means permitting theextension to be completely withdrawn from the propelling arm and thespline having a tapered upper end for centering itself within theextension upon application of the extension to the propelling arm.

HERBERT A. EVEREST. HARRY C. JENNINGS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

